17/11/2022 - Hana Nobis’s debut feature-length documentary brings us up close and personal with a complex and emotional character who is attempting to confront his own inner demons

Having just been world-premiered at IDFA, in the Luminous section, Polish Prayers [+see also:
interview: Hana Nobis
film profile], the touching debut feature-length documentary by Polish director Hana Nobis, courageously tackles the contradictions of an entire nation, Poland, where radically opposing ideologies are forced to coexist. Serving as our guide as we explore these opposite ends of the spectrum is Antek, an enigmatic character with a piercing glare, who gradually opens up to life by sampling experiences that he had formerly considered to be off-limits.

Antek’s path towards a kind of self-acceptance and an acceptance of his own contradictions will be long, and the destination will be unknown (Nobis follows him over four years), but what counts, and what the director films with lashings of courage and elegance, is the journey, rather than this final destination. “My intention was to make a film that would portray the many facets of right-wing radicalism and to do so with an open heart. The first step towards change is understanding,” asserts Nobis, and this helps us to grasp just to what extent her gaze is open and free of stigma; it’s intense and profound without being judgemental. Polish Prayers takes us by the hand and accompanies us as we get up close and personal with a highly strung character who is engaged in a poignant struggle with the contradictions of an inner world that he has long believed he can keep under control – like a good toy soldier guarding a seemingly unbreakable faith.

Antek, the protagonist of this long journey, is about to become the leader of an ultraconservative Polish Catholic group called Brotherhood. At this crossroads in his life and on his ideological journey, Antek begins to waver and to question the moral principles that guide his existence, transforming reality into a unicum impervious to external stimuli. The opening scene, which is breathtakingly powerful and slick on a formal level, during which the director films him as he unabashedly washes his private parts in the river, leads us to understand that hidden behind the façade is a seething inner world. On this point, Nobis specifies: “When I met Antek, I realised that he was scarred and that, deep down, he was a rather sensitive character. He chose to conceal this side of himself by detaching himself from his emotions and following the rules established by his family concerning religion and, above all, concerning the archetypical vision of masculinity.” This is true, because what really obsesses the group of extremists that the protagonist belongs to just happens to be manliness – manliness of a hegemonic, overbearing, heterosexual and patriarchal kind that, in their view, has to govern any kind of social interaction.

“What does Poland need?” asks one member of the group before the others reply, in unison, “Catholicism and brave men.” This is the creed of this bunch of individuals who hide their own vulnerability and anguish beneath the mask of an outdated patriarchal masculinity that believes it is in control of the world. What compels them and moves them deep down, making them feel like “real men”, is “pre-revolutionary femininity”, as they themselves call it – a kind of womanliness that’s seductive but is also submissive, useful for glorifying their own super-ego. Antek’s evolution, his switch from a dogmatic mentality befitting of any kind of extremism to an apparent open-mindedness, to an ever-stronger process of questioning himself, does not stop him, however, from continuing to desire a manly body (often filmed against the light, in a masterful Caravaggio-like chiaroscuro), which he always tries to make strong and muscular. It’s precisely this tangle of paradoxes, the struggle that the main character must go through to strike a balance (which turns out to be elusive), that makes Polish Prayers a potent, rugged, slick and uncompromising piece of work. It’s a movie that raises many questions, opening up a debate that Poland (among other countries) most definitely needs to have.

Polish Prayers was produced by First Hand Films GmbH together with Offhand Films, HBO Max, ARTE and Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk.

(Translated from Italian)